I owe Singapore an apology

I owe Singapore an apology.

When I first visited in 2024, I wrote it off in a week.

I was deep in the process of leaving the Middle East at the time. And Singapore - at first glance - reminded me of everything I was trying to escape in Dubai. Too shiny. Too polished. Too predictable.

I'd just fallen for the chaos of Hong Kong. By comparison, SG felt too tidy and ordered.

I was wrong.

I've been back in Singapore this week, and it's the fifth or sixth trip since that first visit. Every time I come back, the city opens up a little more.

The business environment is phenomenal - hyper-professional, efficient, genuinely international. We've partnered with some incredible companies here this year, and the standard of talent is incredibly high. There's a very strict visa process for expats and so they reserve openings for the best talent on the market.

As a place to live day-to-day? A tiny island - 40 minutes end to end - that somehow contains a top-three global financial centre, serious culture, and more green space than most cities ten times its size.

This is where my run took me this morning.

Here's the thing though. This isn't really a post about Singapore.

It's about what I see candidates, hiring managers and myself do every single week. Judge too fast.

I've lost count of the candidates who've written off Abu Dhabi because it's not Dubai. Most of them have never been. I've watched hiring managers scan a profile for thirty seconds and claim to know the full picture.

We’ve all been guilty of our own version I’m sure.

A week in Singapore in a particular headspace wasn't enough to know it. Neither is a single conversation, a single CV review, or a single visit to a city you might build a career in.

The markets I've worked in longest - Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore - all felt different at month six than they did at week one. Different again at year two. Your experience and perspective compounds over time.

First impressions are cheap. They're pattern-matching against what you already know. And if you're trying to break into a new city, a new industry, or a new kind of role - what you already know is exactly what's going to mislead you.

So here's my challenge for this week:

What's the one market, company, or opportunity you wrote off in the last 12 months - based on a single impression?

Go back and look again. You might owe it an apology too.

— Charlie

One more thing - would you like to grab a coffee together?

Starting next week, I'm running a weekly virtual coffee for everyone on our premium tier.

30-45 minutes, capped at 7 people including me - so it actually feels like a conversation, not a webinar.

Each week we'll loosely cover a topic and you get to ask the questions you can't ask publicly, hear what others in similar positions are dealing with, and get my - and the room's - honest read on your situation.

Honestly, I think the real value is just meeting others in a similar boat.

No recordings. No presentations. No slides. Just coffee and fellow professionals navigating the same market.

It’s exclusive for premium and we’re going to run with two slots.

You can book your preferred slot here 👈 ☕️

You’ll also get:

A personalised Video Review of your LinkedIn profile when you sign up.

The Outreach Script Pack (7 Templates designed to help you get responses)

PLUS full access to our previous written content including:

We even have an FAQ on everything here for anyone curious.

(For current premium subscribers the link to join will go out automatically over the weekend)

In the meantime, here’s our live roles for the week…

Live Roles - APAC and MENA

For full JDs and more information, please direct CVs to [email protected] with the preferred role in the Subject Line.

Due to the volume of applicants we receive, we are only able to respond to those who match the criteria.

We advertise the latest roles through our whatsapp group here as they come in 👈

APAC

MENA

Please allow longer time for replies and responses while we work with our partners to establish the current status of processes in the ME.

If you think anything here might be a fit for someone in your network, please feel free to share!

Thanks for reading and see you next Thursday.

- Charlie.